In today’s business setting, having an edge against rival companies can make or break you. Loyalty is that edge that will have your company profiting and the customers returning. Frederick Reichheld’s theory, The Loyalty Effect, is one of the most useful and needed business strategies. Without loyal employees within a company, your company is destined to fail. I consider myself a very loyal person, not only at my job, but in all aspects of life. I am a manager at Maui Nix Surf Shop and every part of the job is based on loyalty such as opening the store on time, cash deposits, or staying on task with overseeing the store. I plan on becoming a computer engineer and hopefully working for a company like Google or Apple. I love their business …show more content…
Customer loyalty is probably the hardest to attain. In many typical businesses, as many as 45% of direct, new, one-off purchasers do not go on to purchase a second time (Clark). Customer satisfaction is first based on a recent experience of the product or service. This assessment depends on prior expectations of overall quality compared to the actual performance received. If the recent experience exceeds prior expectations, customer satisfaction is likely to be high (Wikipedia). Loyal employees will work with the customers making them feel welcome and the customer will be more inclined to come back to the company that treats them kindly rather than a company that ignores them or treats them poorly. As customer loyalty increases, the word-of-mouth advertising increases and people are telling their friends and family about the products and services a company provides solely based on how they were treated. With an all-around loyal business, business value increases and profits increase. According to Reichheld, loyalty is the hallmark of great leaders. Regardless of a leader’s moral imperatives, a leader’s ability to put the welfare of their employees, their customers, and their suppliers ahead of their own self-interests is a hallmark of the most profitable and sustainable companies (Williams). Reichheld introduced his theory in the mid-1980’s and hasn’t had much opposition towards it. Loyalty in
Furthermore, the publication suggests that the brand loyalty is correlated with market share. So, the bigger the company is, the more loyalty among its customers. And, this is true because the more people get to know the company, its services, and its products, the more brand identity it will form among current customers. Also, large companies benefit from having more loyal customers because they engage in word-of-mouth activities which can potentially attract more customers. So, there are many ways in which a company can increase their loyalty levels. But, when it comes to increasing market share, a better way could involve the increase in revenues among consumers. This can be done by opening more stores, offering products online, and by offering volume discounts. And, as a result, the company may be able to increase revenues and potentially increase its market share. Eventually, it could lead to an increase in the amount of loyal customers overall. Moreover, it can be said that loyalty programs and other related marketing activities can only make a difference in the long-run because the result are hardly noticeable in the short-run due to the fact that it takes time for a buyer to become an actual loyal customer.
Employees must first align their perceptions of service quality to what the customer’s perceptions are (Becker & Wellins 1990). Understanding what drives the customer establishment relationship is important to turning one time customers into loyal
The aspects of business success that Jones (2012) chooses to study are that of customer retention and employee satisfaction. Being able to minimize the loss of customers correlates to improved financial
Customer loyalty is much harder to obtain that customer service satisfaction. The most important first step is to satisfy the customer by meeting their expectations. Customers only give a company one chance and if they aren’t satisfied they will not do business with that company again, as well as tell others of their experience. The next step would be to exceed the customer’s expectations. If a business goes above and beyond to assist the customer they begin to build loyalty. The next step is to truly surprise the customer. In order to dominate the marketplace the company must find a way to make them selves stand out with their product or service, accompanied with phenomenal customer service. Once this has been done customer satisfaction and loyalty will be gained. “Acquiring a new customer can cost four or five times more than keeping a current customer” (Bestmark, 2013). So it’s essential to keep the current customer’s happy and coming back for more.
Loyal Customer can mean a consistent source of revenue over a period of many years. However, this loyalty cannot be taken for granted. It will continue only as long as the customer feels they are receiving better value than they would obtain from another supplier. There are many approaches companies can usefully adopt to measure loyalty and many companies keen to help with various tools and techniques. A large number of retailers have become so focused on customer basket analysis, profitability and driving down operating costs that they have forgotten to listen to the real voice of the customer. Indeed in a Bain Company survey in 2005, 80% of companies believed they were delivering a superior customer experience; only 8% of their customers agreed.
It is imperative to satisfy customers and give them an amazing experience at the company. While it cost less to sell to existing customers and companies can increase profit by selling to the same customers; if customers are satisfied, there is more chance they will come back for more services or products. Satisfied customers are a free marketing for the company. However, it is the opposite if customers are dissatisfied. Dissatisfied customer will tell 8 to 10 people about his or her experience (O’Brien, A & Marakas, G. 2004). If by any reason, representatives see that the customer is not satisfy, they should act fast and fix the problem. Furthermore, there is more chance for sale representatives to sell to an existing customer that to a new customer. A good strategy for customer retention is to reward good customers. Companies can easily do
Loyalty, as defined by Fred Reichcheld in his book ‘The Loyalty Effect’, is the willingness to make an investment or personal sacrifice to strengthen a relationship. This seems almost impossible in today’s world especially the world where a good job and money is every man’s priority. Hence, this research will focus on those factors that can affect an employee’s loyalty towards his company and recommend ways to increase employee loyalty.
Also, the average person today in the marketplace is becoming more and more aware of their style of living and are trying to choose a healthier path. The challenge though, is not only acquiring loyal customers, but acquiring loyal ones that are also profitable. There are many cases throughout the marketplace where a consumer may prefer a particular brand such as a phone, car, or clothing, but have never actually bought any of these items from the original manufacturer. This prohibits the company from receiving any type of benefit from the loyalty. This and many other reasons is why you see companies today implementing loyalty programs. These are programs that help provide incentives for customers to do repeat business with you. While they are primarily aimed at rewarding those in their current consumer base, it is also a tool for attracting new customers away from competitors. This is achieved by current consumers using word-of-mouth to spread the benefits of your firm, or by popular advertisements that can be seen via the internet or television. Although it may not be the first thing that comes to mind, the Four P’s of the marketing mix are major influencers of brand loyalty. This is especially true when referring to product and promotion.
“Customer loyalty can make or break a brand.” How far do you agree with this statement?
Burgelman (2015) agrees, claiming ?happy customers tend to be loyal customers? (p. 34). Simply put, the better the experience a consumer has, the more likely he or she is to return to a company (Kumar et al., 2015).
The next R, relationships, is the most important building block of motivation today. Wharton University states, "If loyalty is defined as being faithful to a cause, ideal, custom, institution or product, then there seems to be a certain amount of infidelity in the workplace these days." The reason why there is so much "infidelity" in the workplace is because relationships are no longer being utilized as a motivator for keeping employees. A study conducted by MetLife says that one in three people surveyed plans to leave their job by the end of the year. A Wharton professor by the name of Adam Cobb believes that there is an even bigger reason for decreased loyalty in the workplace and that is the connection between an employee 's loyalty to the company and the reciprocal the company 's loyalty to the employee. Let 's think about if a company was loyal to its employees and used loyalty as a key motivator, would employees be job hoping as much as they are now? 50 years ago firms had the best interest of the employees in mind. Companies motivated their employees with the promise of returned loyalty. In the last 30 years firms have dramatically changed that view and have taken away the motivation of loyalty relationships to better entertain the well-being of its
When customers become loyal, they are not only buying your product or service, they become emotionally attached to your brand. They may mention your brand to their friends and family endorsing your brand through word
A similar research Loyalty in Retail: A strategic success or a management failure states that successful loyalty programs do not exist in vacuum. The loyalty cards provided by the retailers are compared to the hammer. Just as a hammer does not build a house, a loyalty card does not build customer loyalty. Customer loyalty has been used as a strategic approach in increasing customer value and thus providing a good customer experience but it doesn’t work alone. A brand value has to be created in which involvement of the staff, quality of the products, knowledge about the customers etc. are required.
Establishing a business has become one of the most challenging matters for a business person. It needs a lot of marketing strategies, effort, funds so forth to make it possible. Once it has been funded it is necessary to have a better business image and reputation that customers are starting to trust and look for more services that a company can offer. There is significant interest in customer satisfaction because it is vital to a company, it is a measure of how products and services supplied by a company meet or surpass customer’s expectations. As the business competition has grown enormously the need for loyal customers is imperative to a company; the main question is how to maintain a positive business image in order to create a new set of clients to sustain and survive the company for a long period. This essay will discuss the adversities that businesses are facing when dealing with customer satisfaction. These mainly circle around the employee’s pursuance to maintain customer gratification, continue customer loyalty and how to cultivate a harmonious relationship. It will then move on to examine the solutions to these problems.
Customer Loyalty is a customer who will repurchase from the same service provider whenever possible, and who continue to recommend or maintains a positive attitude towards the service provider. The loyal customers are less likely to switch because of price and they make more purchases than similar non-loyal customers (Reichheld and Sasser, 1990). Loyalty customers will also help to promote and share knowledge with their friends about the service provider. They will provide strong word-of-mouth, create business referrals, provide references and serve on advisory boards. The loyal customers are served as a "fantastic marketing force" by providing recommendations and spreading positive word-of-mouth, those partnership-like activities are the most available advertising that the company can get (Raman, 1999). Loyal customers increase sale volume by purchasing a wider variety of the products and by making more frequent purchases. The loyal customers had more purchasing services than non-loyal customers (Bowen and Shoemaker, 1998). And other researchers have theorized that service encounter satisfaction, customer loyalty and profitability are related (Zeithaml et al. 1996).